Decade of drought dries up prosperity

October 21 2002By Stathi PaxinosRegional Affairs Reporter

Picture: WADE LAUBEFarmer John McKeon has seen the stock of sheep on his New South Wales property reduced this year.

Riverina farmer John McKeon does not socialise much any more. He has been too busy keeping his livelihood afloat - a full-time job in the midst of the toughest conditions that the wool grower can remember in a lifetime on the land.

He says a dry season usually signals a good year for wool growers because disease-spreading flies cannot thrive in the harsh conditions. But the drought, which now engulfs 92 per cent of New South Wales, has simply "gone too far".

"It's been been a long downhill slide for us here," Mr McKeon says.

"There's only been two years since 1991 that it's been any good. The rest have been very ordinary seasons and it culminated when two years ago it started to turn dry."

Mr McKeon usually carries up to 9000 sheep on his 30,000-hectare property 80 kilometres north of Hillston, which is 680 kilometres west of Sydney. This year, he has lost 1500 ewes and been forced to sell a similar number. He has kept a base breeding stock of 3000 ewes surviving on bore water and feed purchased at greatly inflated prices. However, he will offload a further 200 ewes at prices of less than $1 each because of their condition.");document.write("

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"It's better than shooting them," he says.

He virtually lost his entire season of lambs, with only 120 surviving from a possible 3000. He has not joined the ewes this year, so there will not be any lambs next year and it will take three years to rebuild his wool operations if the drought broke tomorrow. That, however, will not happen.

On top of this, the wheat, oats and barley crops did not produce a harvest last season. This year he did not plant a crop.

However, on Saturday night, Mr McKeon joined a group of farmers who met for the first time in many months at the RSL club in Hillston. They were there to meet emerging business leaders from Melbourne. It proved cathartic.

"We've been pretty busy for quite a long time, keeping our stock alive, and we don't get time for social interaction," Mr McKeon said.

"It's actually good to get together sometimes because you realise that you are not the only one that is having a hard time. It was good to meet up with some of the others and find out that they're doing it just as hard as you are."

Hillston and its neighbour Griffith have prospered on the back of irrigation from local rivers and bore water.

However, dryland farmers and graziers from the surrounding districts have been struggling through a decade of poor rainfall and low commodity prices. They will not achieve a harvest this season and most have drastically destocked.

Mr McKeon says higher prices for wool and sheep had offset some of the impact, although the quality of his produce, particularly the wool, had been affected. He also says farmers employ better farming techniques that assist in such times, and he defends the farmers who have chosen to work lands that were susceptible to drought.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks earlier this month declared northern Victoria in drought. However, he remarked that conditions south of the Murray River were not as bad as New South Wales. The expressions chiselled into the faces of the farmers betrayed its impact as they described the conditions to the Victorian group, who had been invited to the area by agribusiness entrepreneur Doug Shears.

Meanwhile, federal Environment Minister David Kemp, in marking the start of Water Week, said his department was calling for tenders to study the feasibility and effectiveness of a labelling system for showers, dishwashers, washing machines and other appliances for water efficiency.